Antonio Citterio designs boutique Sheung Wan studios

Italian designer and architect Antonio Citterio picks up two small plastic bottles of water a well-meaning assistant has just placed on our table, impeccably laid with Citterio-designed cutlery and crystal glasses.

"No, no, no," he says handing the bottles back to the confused assistant. "They spoil the look of the table," he explains, gesturing at the tableau that has been carefully prepared for our discussion about his newest project, 99 Bonham, a luxury boutique apartment hotel in Sheung Wan.

Citterio has built his international reputation on such obsessive attention to detail. Watching the bottles disappear, his business partner for more than 25 years, Patricia Viel, shakes her head, laughing, and says: "You should see how many samples we have of the glass we tested for 99 Bonham's lobby. He kept testing and testing until we found the absolutely perfect one."

The result is admittedly close to perfection: a series of smoky blue-black floor-to-ceiling glass panels with alternating matt and polished finishes that create a striking sense of simple sophistication. The 84 studio apartments upstairs also sport Citterio's trademark modernist style, with a subtle cool silver-grey palette and pared-back décor.

His previous projects include designing über-chic hotels for Bulgari - converting a former convent into the Bulgari Hotel in Milan in 2004, followed by the Bulgari Resort in Bali and the Bulgari restaurant and cafe in Tokyo, in 2007. He is also responsible for the sleek interiors at the W hotel in St Petersburg.

Still, when he first saw 99 Bonham Strand, Citterio says he was "completely seduced by the pictures of the site".